FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1996                          (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CLOSES INVESTIGATION INTO THE WAY AC NIELSEN CO.
         CONTRACTS ITS SERVICES FOR TRACKING RETAIL SALES

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice said today
that it will close its investigation into the way AC Nielsen Co.
contracts its services for tracking retail sales because the
company has reached an agreement with the European Commission
that will alleviate any anticompetitive concerns.

     Retail sales tracking service providers obtain data, often
collected by scanning the bar code on products, to analyze how
and when products are sold in retail stores.  They sell analyses
of this data to product manufacturers which find this type of
information useful for promotional and marketing plans.  

     The Department's Antitrust Division had been investigating
whether Nielsen, in contracting with multinational customers,
illegally bundled or tied the terms of contracts in one country
with those in other countries.  For example, the Division looked
at whether Nielsen offered customers more favorable terms in
countries where Nielsen had market power only if those customers
also used Nielsen in countries where Nielsen faced significant
competition.  Although these contracting practices occurred
mostly abroad, they may have had an adverse effect on U.S. export
commerce by preventing exports by U.S. tracking companies.

      This type of conduct also was the subject of an antitrust
investigation by competition authorities in Europe.

     "Most of the conduct occurred in Europe and had its greatest
impact there," said Joel Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General
in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division. "When it became
clear to us that the European Commission had a firm intention to
act, we decided to let our colleagues at the Commission take the
lead." 

     Nielsen, one of the largest sellers of retail sales tracking
services of consumer packaged goods, formally committed to the
European Commission that it will not tie or link the terms of its
contracts with customers in one country to the terms of contracts
for similar services in other countries. 

     The Department's Antitrust Division and the European
Commission cooperated extensively throughout the course of their
investigations, with frequent contact between the investigative
staffs and the sharing of documents and information with the
consent of the parties who provided them.

     "This is an excellent example of cooperative antitrust
enforcement that has led to effective and efficient resolution of
conduct that is international in scope," said Klein.  "As the
results show, this has been a highly successful process and we
are very pleased by the way it was carried out."  

     The Department and the Commission have cooperated on a
number of investigations and will continue to do so in the future.

     Because of the formal commitments, called undertakings, that
Nielsen gave to the European Commission, the Department has
concluded that the practices it has been investigating will not
continue, and thus is closing its investigation.
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